I like publishing via browser
You like publishing via email
Dave likes publishing via his phone
Jill likes publishing via IM

Then on the flip-side:

I like reading via RSS aggregator
You like reading via email
Dave likes reading via browser
Jill likes reading via phone

Now, that removes the publication from the constraint of a specific delivery method and allows everyone to publish and read in whichever form they like bestest.

I’ll give you the “coordinating groups in real time” argument, with only a brief snarky mention of flash mobs and Finnish teenagers who’ve been doing this for years with just their phones.

There are some very compelling contexts where something like Twitter is hugely valuable (think coordinating groups in real-time). There’s also huge value in platform-agnostic publishing (the core of Twitter) for both publishing and receiving. Let’s say I prefer publishing via browser, but you prefer publishing via email, and Joe prefers reading via his phone. Sounds like a win-win-win for everyone.

As Dave reminds us, our filters for context and relevance have yet to catch up to our post-scarcity world.

Really, why do we need this? Who wants to sit there and type in what they’re doing all day long? Don’t we have enough distractions what with RSS aggregators, IM, E-mail, personal home pages, blogs, etc?

We live in a time of cultural overproduction. I don’t need to know what my friends are doing at every moment of the day. They don’t need to know what I’m doing. I am always contactable… if not by email then IM, if not by IM then by phone. Really, the only times I’m NOT contactable I don’t want to be contacted anyway (in the bathroom, interviewing users, or moderating a usability test).

Maybe I’ve just become old and my brain has reached its capacity for understanding (and being excited by) technology, but this looks like a horrendous waste of time to me. I probably just don’t get it.

Alright, rant over. Time to go soak my dentures in lye…